Xiaomi recently released the Redmi Pad SE in India at a very competitive price. This device is designed for both casual multimedia experiences and students, and it has rather decent hardware. It does include the MIUI Pad OS, a feature-rich software package. After using it for over a week, this is our detailed review. We have discussed both the pros and cons of the Redmi Tablet in this review so you can choose whether the Redmi Pad SE is a worthy purchase.

Redmi Pad SE Review: Design and Display

The Redmi Pad SE is an exceptionally stylish and high-end-looking tablet. We were utterly enthralled with the gorgeous lavender-purple review unit that we were provided. The aluminium alloy unibody design of the device feels quite solid and secure in your hands, and the build quality is also shockingly good. Three colour options are available: Lavender Purple, Mint Green, and Graphite Grey. Its portable and lightweight design makes it easy to carry about. The tablet is thin at 7.36mm and weighs only 478g. It seems much lighter and is quite well-balanced, we must say.

Since the back panel has a matte finish, smudges and fingerprints won’t stick on it either. Additionally, a single rear camera housed in a rectangular-shaped camera module is seen on the upper left corner. Even though it is noticeable, the camera hump does not protrude very much, and when the tablet is set on a level surface, it does not wobble.

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On the right side are the volume keys, a tray that allows you to add up to 1 TB of storage, and microphones for video or phone chats. Dual stereo speakers, a USB Type C charging port, and a handy 3.5mm audio port, are located on the bottom part. At the top, you get the power button and another set of dual speakers, so you get a four-speaker setup. 

It seems pretty high-end as a result of its minimalistic design philosophy.

Although the front panel’s bezels are not especially slim, this tablet has an 84 percent screen-to-body ratio, which gives you enough room to comfortably hold it. With a 5-megapixel selfie camera on the top bezel, it’s ideal for video calls. The device has an 11-inch full-HD+ LCD screen with a resolution of 1,900 × 1,200 pixels. The display is certified low-blue light by TÜV Rheinland and has a refresh rate of up to 90 Hz. Furthermore, it has a respectable 70 percent NTSC colour gamut, a touch sampling rate of up to 180 Hz, and a peak brightness of 400 nits. Additionally, it features an 8-bit panel with 16.7 million colours.

It is an LCD panel, despite that, the colour reproduction is rather good, bright and vivid. The viewing angles are generally good unless you are watching it from an unusual angle. And because there was no available case or stand, we had to either hold the tablet straight up or at a level when watching content or surfing its interface. The outdoor visibility is good. For a tablet under Rs 15k, the 90Hz refresh rate is rather nice at delivering a seamless user experience. This results in a very smooth transition. Over that, the excellent and fast touch response improves the whole display experience.

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You will be impressed by the multimedia experience offered by the Redmi Pad SE. Netflix and other OTT platform material will play at full resolution thanks to its Widevine L1 certification. It can also smoothly play 4K YouTube videos, however, keep in mind that it can only support full HD resolutions. The content looks amazing on the widescreen.

The Redmi Pad SE’s audio setup includes quad speakers with Dolby Atmos compatibility, which creates a surround sound illusion. The music heads in every direction, rendering it loud, clear, and crisp. It also has a headphone port, allowing you to plug in your earbuds and enjoy content uninterrupted.

Redmi Pad SE Review: Performance and Camera

Let’s now assess the performance. Qualcomm’s 6nm Snapdragon 680 Mobile Platform and Qualcomm Adreno for graphics are bundled with the Redmi Pad SE. It comes in three variants: 4GB+128GB, 6GB+128GB, and 8GB+128GB, and supports LPDDR4X RAM and eMMC 5.1 storage. Up to 1TB of additional storage can be added to the Redmi tablet using a microSD card. The mid-range chipset performs well and excels at handling daily chores. It is swift and fluid, enabling you to open numerous apps at once and multitask without experiencing any lag. Additionally, we did not observe any app crashes.

The variant that we have comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which can be increased to 1TB using a microSD card. One thing we were not expecting, Redmi included eMMC 5.1-type storage on this tablet, which is a little out of date since it is 2024.

We tested our BGMI’s gaming skills, and we had a great time playing games on a large screen. There are occasionally a few frame drops, but they are not noticeable and the game is still playable. We did test out Asphalt 9: Legends, it performed flawlessly on the default settings, albeit with a few frame skips and a little jitter. Furthermore, we did not notice any unusual temperature rise. However, if you want to play intense games, you can consider a more powerful Xiaomi Pad. This tablet is not meant for heavy gaming.

It comes pre-installed with MIUI Pad 14, which is based on Android 13. We wish Android 14 with HyperOS instead of MIUI had been shipped with it; its lack of Android 14 is a bit of a drawback. The good news is that Xiaomi says the Pad will receive both of these updates. Fortunately, it included a few pre-installed third-party apps like Netflix and Yahoo that could be removed, and it was free of bloatware.

It brings several features from the Xiaomi Pad 6 and is highly optimised in terms of experience. You can multitask by immediately opening two apps side by side with the three-finger swipe gesture. The apps stay in the app tray and launch all at once even if you minimise them both. The ability to open an app like Notes as a popup window is another awesome feature. It’s called floating windows. In total, four windows can be opened: two split-screen windows and two floating-screen windows. Using this tablet to browse social networking apps was such fun.

Typing with your thumb is easy in portrait mode; however, in landscape mode, you can either split the keyboard into two halves and type with your thumb, or you can type like on a full-size keyboard. We even downloaded the entire Microsoft Suite to use on the tablet while travelling, including Word, Excel, and other programmes.

The 8MP rear camera has an f/2.0 aperture and 1.12μm pixel size, allowing for 1080P video recording at 30 frames per second. The tablet has a 5MP f/2.2 front camera with a 1.12μm pixel size for selfies and video calls.

Tablets aren’t the best devices for taking pictures, so don’t expect too much from the primary camera. Still, it can shoot some nice pictures.

An integrated document scanner was included, and it performed incredibly well.

The 5-MP selfie camera performed well, especially when there was some decent indoor light. It was very clear. This camera is more appropriate for video calls since it manages background exposure well in video calls.

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In terms of endurance, the Redmi Pad SE is backed by an 8,000mAh battery, which supports 18W charging. It is stated that it can play videos for up to 14 hours or music for up to 219 hours on a single charge and that it can run on standby for up to 43 days.

After a few hours of binge-watching, internet browsing, checking social media feeds, playing some games, and using Microsoft Suite, the battery easily lasted us three to four days throughout our testing. You sadly only receive a 10W charger, and it takes three hours to charge completely. The tablet should be charged overnight before use, as it requires a significant amount of time. You may need to purchase an 18-watt charger, which will accelerate the charging process somewhat, but still not nearly as quickly as the 33 or 60-watt charger.

There is no support for a SIM card in terms of connectivity; the only options are Bluetooth and WiFi.

Additionally, because it does not include a fingerprint scanner, there is no reliable biometric unlocking available. The face unlock feature is the only option to unlock the tab without entering a passcode or making a pattern. Although this isn’t a safe way to unlock a personal gadget, it did function effectively in most well-lit situations.

Verdict

If you’re looking for a tablet to watch your favourite OTT content or movies on the go, do some casual gaming, or even do your office work without breaking the bank, then the Redmi Pad SE is the tablet for you. As far as casual gaming goes, the Pad SE is fairly good. There is no laginess of any kind and the application runs quite well. The sound quality provided by the quad speakers is just amazing. While it’s hardly a performance monster, the Snapdragon 680 Mobile Platform is adequate for doing daily tasks

The Redmi Tab’s starting price is a mere Rs 11,999. To provide a tablet at this affordable price, Redmi has made several compromises. In this case, a previous version of Android—Android 13 with MIUI and a 10W charger—is offered. Its eMMC storage 5.1 is one more thing we thought may have been improved. In addition, practically every customer searching for an affordable tablet will find it adequate. 

Buy Here

Redmi Pad SE Pros

• Brilliant in terms of build quality
• Display experience is quite good
• Stellar Battery life
• Impressive quad speaker setup

Redmi Pad SE Cons

• eMMC storage support
• No fast charging
• Just get Android 13 out of the box

The post Redmi Pad SE Review: Is it competitive enough? appeared first on Gadget Bridge by Komila Singh.